Saturday, November 12, 2016

Baltimore Activist Alert November 12 – 15, 2016

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own
nation. The great initiative in this war is ours.

The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther
King Jr.

Friends, this list and other email documents which I send
out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go
to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com.
If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send
contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max
Obuszewski can be reached at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.

3] –THE
ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National
Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by
conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will
consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national
organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the
NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war
in Iraq.

To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group
affiliation, city and email address to mobuszewski at Verizon.net.
Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to
subscribe.

THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR
actions and related information and is open to any interested person to
subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include
periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To
join the NOTICES List, send an email message to ncnrnotices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.
You will get a confirmation message once subscribed. If you have
problems, please write to the list manager atncnrnotices-admin@lists.riseup.net.

4]
– Janice and Max are looking to buy a house in Baltimore. Let Max know if
you have any leads—410-323-1607 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.

5]
– A march and rally to protest the construction of
an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota is
scheduled to take place in Annapolis on Sat., Nov. 12 starting at 12:30
PM. A Facebook page advertising the event, called "Maryland Stands
with Standing Rock," says participants will march to the State House and
then to the waterfront, where they will hold a nonviolent demonstration with a "solidarity
prayer." Local Native Americans will lead the march which is set to begin
at Susan Campbell Park, said Felicia Nolan, special events coordinator for the
city. Supplies, like sleeping bags and firewood, will be collected for the
activists camps in North Dakota. A full list of supplies being sought by the
camps can be found at http://sacredstonecamp.org/supply-list/.

6]
– Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W.
Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4661, meets on Sundays, and generally
there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 AM to noon. On Sun., Nov.
13, the platform address is “Transgender
Progress.” Despite deep-rooted bigotry toward transgender individuals,
over the last decade there has also been remarkable progress toward fuller
rights, respect, and visibility for those who don’t identify with the gender
identity assigned to them at birth. Hugh Taft-Morales, a cis-gendered
heterosexual, explores his own path toward fuller appreciation of the
challenges for the transgender community. What can Ethical Culturists and
humanists do to better defend the rights of transgender individuals? November
20, 2016 is the Transgender Day of Remembrance? This day of remembrance on
November 20 will be commemorated at First Unitarian Church, Charles and
Franklin Sts., at 6 PM. Taft-Morales joined the Baltimore Ethical Society as
its professional leader in 2010, the same year he was certified by the American
Ethical Union as an Ethical Culture Leader. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.

7]
– Come to the 37th Annual Multi-faith Service & Conference
for Peace- "Preventing a New Nuclear Arms Race!" It
will take place in Princeton on Sun., Nov. 13 at 11 AM. Go to https://www.peacecoalition.org/events/759-36th-annual-interfaith-service-a-conference-for-
peace-2.html. Sister Megan Rice, anti-nuclear activist and major
protagonist in Dan Zak's “Almighty” will be there. The sermon will be
delivered by Imam Sohaib Sultan,
Muslim Life Coordinator and Chaplain at Princeton University, at 11 AM in the
Princeton University Chapel. A free will offering to support the educational
work of the Coalition for Peace Action will be requested. The Conference for
Peace is from 1:30 to 5 PM in Guyot Hall, Room 10.

8]
– On Sun., Nov. 13 from 5 to 7 PM, attend a poster
making and phone bank party to prepare for calling on Senator Joan Carter
Conway to ban fracking. Contact Rianna at 978-835-6230.

9]
– On Sun., Nov. 13 at 5:30 PM hear from Father Greg Boyle at Gonzaga High
School, 19 I St NW, WDC. Gang violence intrudes in too many
lives—locally, nationally and internationally as well. Often law enforcement
can’t contain the crimes and killings. Father Greg found one model that
curtails the brutality and coaches “homies” into jobs: Homeboy
Industries. He will be speaking at a benefit for Salvadoran Enterprises for
Women. Tickets are on line at http://www.sewinc.org/.

10]
– There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987,
outside the Pentagon Metro stop. The next vigil is Nov., 14, and it is
sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call
202-882-9649. The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro
entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind
bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro. By Metro, take
Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the
Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest
area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit
8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of
ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You
can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr., and there is meter
parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots
begin at 8 AM. No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds.
Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S.
Fern and Army Navy Dr.

11]
– The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday fr6m 10 AM to noon on WEAA
88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org.
The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by
email to steinershow@gmail.com. All
shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.

12]
– Join a Witness to Urge Bishops to Speak Out for Women’s Ordination, Gender
Justice on Mon., Nov. 14 at noon outside the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, 700
Aliceanna St., Baltimore, MD 21202. Activist priests Roy Bourgeois and Janice
Sevre-Duszynska will witness for women priests as the 300 bishops of the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops gather for their annual conference. Fr.
Bourgeois was excommunicated five years ago for his support of women priests.
He has continued to speak out for gender justice in the Roman Catholic Church. “Pope
Francis,” Bourgeois wrote in his letter, “who are we, as men, to say that our
call from God is authentic, but God’s call to women is not? Isn’t our
all-powerful God, who created the cosmos, capable of empowering a woman to be a
priest?” Sevre-Duszynska made this comment: “Women priests are living out an
inclusive and egalitarian non-clerical priesthood. Lack of gender equality
within the Church diminishes the Church and causes more suffering in our
world.” Go to The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, www.arcwp.org Contact Janice
Sevre-Duszynska, ARCWP activist priest of eight years, at 859-684-4247 or rhythmsofthedance1@gmail.com or
Fr. Roy Bourgeois, former Maryknoll priest of 40 years, founder of the School
of the Americas Watch and advocate for women priests and the LGBTIQ community,
at 706-570-5359.

13]
-- Senator Joan Carter Conway, 43rd District, is the
chair of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, the
committee that the fracking ban will first have to pass through. Sen. Conway is
a long standing advocate for environmental issues, championing bills such as
the ban on bee-killing pesticides, the ban on arsenic in chicken feed and the
two-year fracking moratorium. We just need to show her that this issue is one
her constituents care deeply about. Join a Rally to Tell
Senator Conway: Ban Fracking Now! It is happening on Mon., Nov. 14
from 3 to 3:45 PM at Senator Conway’s Office, 2831 Hillen Road, Baltimore
21218. Contact Rianna Eckel at reckel@fwwatch.org or 410-394-7652. Go tohttps://www.facebook.com/events/1440554335959439/.

16]
–"Palestinians in Syria: Nakba Memories of Shattered Communities" with
Dr. Anaheed Al-Hardan is happening at 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, WDC, on Tues.,
Nov. 15 from 12:30 to 2 PM. A light lunch will be served at
12:30 PM, and the talk begins promptly at 1PM. One hundred
thousand Palestinians fled to Syria after being expelled from Palestine upon
the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Integrating into Syrian
society over time, their experience stands in stark contrast to the plight of
Palestinian refugees in other Arab countries, leading to different ways through
which to understand the 1948 Nakba, or catastrophe, in their popular memory.
Conducting interviews with first-, second-, and third-generation members of
Syria’s Palestinian community, Anaheed Al-Hardan follows the evolution of the
Nakba—the central signifier of the Palestinian refugee past and present—in Arab
intellectual discourses, Syria’s Palestinian politics, and the community’s
memorialization. Al-Hardan’s sophisticated research sheds light on the enduring
relevance of the Nakba among the communities it helped create, while
challenging the nationalist and patriotic idea that memories of the Nakba are
static and universally shared among Palestinians. Her study also critically
tracks the Nakba’s changing meaning in light of Syria’s twenty-first-century
civil war.

17]
– Stand with Standing Rock on Nov. 15 #NoDAPL - Day of Action at Army Corps of
Engineers There is a No DAPL: Baltimore Solidarity Action on Tues., Nov.
15 at 4:30 PM at US Army Engineer District City Crescent Building, 10 S. Howard
St., Baltimore 21201. Indigenous leaders are calling on us to take to the
streets and disrupt "business-as-usual" one week after the election
to demand that President Obama's Army Corps of Engineers and the incoming
administration stop the Dakota Access Pipeline -- and all those after it. As of
now, there are 102 events planned (see map). It's time for the Administration
to take immediate action to stop this pipeline.See https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/nov-15-nodapl-day-of-action-at-army-corps-of-engineers.

19]
– Each Tuesday from 4:30 - 5:30 PM, the Catholic Peace
Fellowship-Philadelphia for peace in Afghanistan and Iraq gathers at the
Suburban Station, 16th St. & JFK Blvd., at the entrance to Tracks
3 and 4 on the mezzanine. The next vigil is Nov. 15. Call
215-426-0364.

21]
– Vigil to say "No Drone Research at JHU" each Tuesday at 33rd &
North Charles Sts. join this ongoing vigil on Nov. 15 from 5:30 to
6:30 PM. Call Max at 410-323-1607.

22]
– Get over to a Nonviolent Direct Action Training at All Souls Church,
Unitarian, 2835 16th St. NW, WDC, on Tues., Nov. 15 from 6:15 to 8:30
PM. Direct Action 101- What is this thing and how do you do it? During this
training you will learn the importance of collective action, its connection to
collective liberation, the basics of NVDA (nonviolent direct action) Theory,
some legal factors to consider, and some basic tactics on shutting things down
to open them up. This training is intended for White activists who want to
plan solidarity actions for racial justice, but is open to all. The
training will be led by Robby Diesu and Sonia Silbert, two long-term DC White
activists with over 20 combined years of doing direct action in DC. RSVP at https://goo.gl/forms/l3Q8o7TJ9WN9JX8j2.

23]
– The film "Fracking Western Maryland?" will
be shown by the Student Environmental Organization at Towson University on
Tues., Nov. 15 at 6:30 PM in the Psychology Building Room 304. Citizens across
Maryland are currently rallying in order to get Fracking banned in Maryland.
The film is by Towson Alum, Michael Wicklein, Mr. Wicklein has captured the
contentious issues surrounding the fracking moratorium bill that was passed in
the 2015 legislative session. The film features citizens of Garrett County and
legislators in Annapolis. Use the Towsontown
Garage, off Towsontown Boulevard. Then walk through the Liberal Arts Building
to get to the Psychology Building. Or ride the York or Charles Street
buses. Call 410-5771.

24]
– On Tues., Nov. 15 at 6:30 PM, the 4th Annual Peace Dinner will be
held during the USCCB Fall Assembly in Baltimore, Maryland. The dinner is being
sponsored by the Catholic Peace Fellowship, Pax Christi Metro Baltimore/DC, the
Community of Sant’Egidio and the Catholic Worker and will be held at St.
Vincent de Paul Church, 120 N. Front St. It begins with a prayer led by
the Community of Sant’Egidio in the Church. The theme this year will be
on creating a space in the church for encounter, listening, and accompaniment
of military veterans and their loved ones. We hope to consider together what it
means for the church to faithfully attend to what modern clinicians,
philosophers and theologians call “moral injury” and what St. Augustine called “anguish
of soul” or “heartfelt grief” stemming from combat and war.

We will be joined this year by Warren Kinghorn, M.D., Th.D. Assistant Professor
of Psychiatry and Pastoral and Moral Theology at Duke University Medical Center
and Duke Divinity School and Staff Psychiatrist at the Durham VA Medical
Center. Dr. Kinghorn’s work centers on the role of religious communities in
caring for persons with mental health problems and on ways in which Christians
engage practices of modern health care. Much of his work focuses on the moral
and theological dimensions of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder,
the applicability of virtue theory to the vocational formation of clinicians
and clergy, and the contributions of the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas
Aquinas to contemporary debates about psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric
technology, and human flourishing. RSVP to Brother Seoirse Murray, a monk of
Holy Resurrection Monastery within the Eparchy of St George in Canton, Ohio, at
monk.seoirse@gmail.com or (920) 663-9427.

25]
– On Tues., Nov. 15 at 7 PM, enjoy a reading and Q&A with Marina Budhos &
Deepa Iyer at The Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Rd. NW, WDC. Budhos’s
extraordinary and timely novel WATCHED examines what it’s like to grow up under
surveillance, something many Americans experience and most Muslim Americans
know. She will be joined by Deepa Iyer, a South Asian American activist,
lawyer, and author of “We Too Sing America, South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh
Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future,” winner of the 2016 American Book
Award. Naeem is far from the “model teen.” Moving fast in his immigrant
neighborhood in Queens is the only way he can outrun the eyes of his
hardworking Bangladeshi parents and their gossipy neighbors. Even worse,
they’re not the only ones watching. Cameras on poles. Mosques infiltrated.
Everyone knows: Be careful what you say and who you say it to. Anyone might be
a watcher. RSVP via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/595364097314883/.

26]
– Bread & Roses: Election 2016: What’s Next for Labor? This discussion will
be at Busboys and Poets (Takoma), 235 Carroll Street NW, WDC, on Tues., Nov. 15
from 6 to 8 PM. Labor’s political work does not end on Election
Day. Upcoming hot issues include paid family leave, workplace scheduling and
other worker bills pending in the DC City Council, fighting the Trans Pacific
Partnership, the Supreme Court vacancy and labor-related battles in Congress.
Metro Washington Council Executive Director Carlos Jimenez moderates
a discussion with political writer Harold Meyerson, Dyana Forester,
lead political and community representative for UFCW Local 400, Joanna
Blotner, DC Paid Family and Medical Leave Program Campaign Manager at Jews
United for Justice AND YOU!

27]
– THE VIETNAMESE REFUGEE DIASPORA AND THE RACIAL POLITICS OF ISRAEL
will be explored on Tues., Nov. 15 at 7:30 PM in the Free School Classroom, Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, 30 W. North Ave.,
Baltimore 21201. What does it mean to extend Vietnamese diaspora studies
beyond North America? Join in exploring the place of Vietnamese refugees in
Israeli racial politics, including how the figure of the Vietnamese refugee was
mobilized in Israel's nation-building project. From 1977- 1979, Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin granted asylum and citizenship to 369 non-Jewish
Vietnamese refugees: an unprecedented event in the state of Israel’s history of
strict asylum policies. This event stands in stark contrast to Israel’s
displacement of Palestinians due to ongoing settlement and occupation in
Palestine. Given this context, what points of connection may arise between
Vietnamese Israelis and displaced Palestinians? How may “home” signify
differently for these two populations? To what degree are Vietnamese Israelis
implicated in the Israeli settler colonial project—what Jodi Byrd has termed “arrivant
colonialism”? In other words, is solidarity between Vietnamese Israelis and
Palestinians even possible when the condition of legibility as citizen for one
population is predicated on the dispossession of the other? Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org.

28]
– The 70th Annual Conference: Rebuilding Alliance, Containing Adversaries will
happen at the Capital Hilton Hotel, 1001 16th St. NW, WDC, on Wed., Nov. 16
from 9 AM to 5 PM. Seismic political changes, civil wars, and
inflamed regional rivalries have challenged President Obama's Middle East
agenda and will confront the next administration as it seeks to promote
America's interests. Washington's relations with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey,
and Israel, and its path forward with Iran, will be decisive in addressing the
Middle East's armed conflicts and rebuilding stability. What role do states in the
region hope or expect the United States to play in the Middle East? What more
should Washington do to help resolve conflicts and promote security? And how
can it better navigate complex relationships with Tel Aviv, Cairo, and Ankara
and improve ties strained during the Obama administration? Go to http://www.mei.edu/events/2016Conference.

Go
to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has
always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to
lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to
lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs